Former VC Dr Khan conferred Honorary Doctorate

Dr Abdul Waheed Khan, former Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), has been conferred with an Honorary Doctorate by Wawasan Open University (WOU), Malaysia.

The Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) has been awarded in acknowledgment and recognition of Dr Khan as a self-made man, visionary, leader, educationist and achiever in education, particularly global distance education.

At present, Dr Khan is serving as President, Talal Abu Gazaleh Business University, Kingdom of Bahrain and Senior Adviser, Arab Open University.

Prior to this, he served as Assistant Director General for Communication and Information, UNESCO, Paris for nearly a decade (July 2001 to June 2010). He joined the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Vancouver, Canada, firstly as Senior Programme Officer (1992-1995), then as Acting Head of the Communications and Information Technologies Division (1995-1996) and as Principal Communications Specialist (1996 - 1998). Dr. Khan also served as a Visiting Professor/Scientist (1990-1991) at the National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME) in Chiba, Japan.

Dr Khan assisted Open and Distance learning institutions in developing Commonwealth countries, particularly in Africa, to develop human resources in educational media. He returned to India in 1998 to take up the position of Vice Chancellor of IGNOU (1998–2000).

During his tenure, he was responsible for strategic planning, resource mobilisation and management of a knowledge network, which includes a consortium of 72 universities. He was also Chairman of the Distance Education Council (DEC), which is responsible for coordinating all Open and Distance Learning programmes in India. He was also responsible for launching an educational broadcasting network of television and radio.

Dr Khan is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including the Rajiv Gandhi National Integration Award (1998), Commonwealth of Learning’s Distinguished Service Award (1998), Super Brain of India Gold Award (2000), India Millennium Award for Education and World Peace (2000), Honorary Doctorate of Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi (2005), Dayawati Modi Foundation Award for Art, Culture and Education (2006), Honorary Fellow of the Commonwealth of Learning (2008) and Kempelen Medal of the Slovak Technical University (2009).